Healthcare regulator Monitor will not appoint a chief executive for the time being, having failed to find a suitable candidate. It said it will wait until Parliament's view on the health and social care bill becomes clearer before trying again, probably early next year. Dr David Bennett will continue to act as interim chief executive, as well as chairman.

Former senior police officer Bob Huntbach has been appointed as the chairman of NHS East Lancashire primary care trust, having been a non-executive director since the trust was formed in 2006. He replaces Kathy Reade, who had chaired the trust since its formation. Huntbach, who will serve until the primary care trust is dissolved in 2013, retired from the police in 2001 as a detective superintendent and has since served on the board of the National Probation Service.

Huntbach takes over as the trust's chief executive, Steve Spoerry, departs after having run it since June 2009. As with other primary care trusts, East Lancashire has become part of a cluster with a single chief executive, with Janet Soo-Chung heading those in Lancashire.